Europe, 1356. The Middle ages is coming to a close as Europe has recently began it's recovery from the Black Death. In the far north east lies us, Novgorod. The first home of the Rus, and it's rightful protector. Surrounded by enemies, Muscovy and the other princes to the south of us, The fading Mongol yoke to the south of them. To the west the Crusading orders, Catholics, and the Swedes whom ever have warred with us for the north. While in the past century we have been mostly content with simply maintaining our lot new leaders in the republic have realized that the southern princes will subjugate us if they rise up and others will if they don't. We must unite the Rus if we are to survive and subjugate our enemies so that we might grow strong. Давай!

For the good of Novgorod the Army needs to be properly lead. Lykov has proven himself a worthy horseman and leader of men hailing from a good family just outside the city. So, he is appointed to our army which will be expanded with new cavalry from the nobility.

Now that the army has been expanded it is time to restore order to the principality of Beloozero which by rights since the old Keivan Rus belongs to us. They have formed an alliance with another minor principality, but even combined they could only barely hope to match our army and we have Lykov.

The first battle takes place outside the capital of Beloozero, our enemies still organizing their army. We send them scattering after what is a small victory

Luckily they are not able to reorganize as our cavalry runs them down and disperses the stragglers. Beloozero will submit shortly now that they have no army.

After besieging their homes for some time they soon realize their allies are not going to even try to fight against our armies and surrender, integrated into the Novgorodian republic. Their Prince swears fealty to the office of the Prince of Novgorod and becomes a semi-elective title much like that of Prince of Novgorod.

Given recent success on the field of battle, the current Посадник is kept in his current post. In the meantime Pskov and Perm are being considered as potential targets for expansion. Pskov's independence was recognized a little over a decade ago but given the need for securing the Rus, since Kiev is threatened by the Lithuanians and Mongols, bringing them into the fold is again an option. Unfortunately many would rather not see this, particularly the Catholics who hold sway there. On the other hand Perm is an isolated territory and conquering them would open up new territory for fur hunting.

We decide to declare war on "Great" Perm to consolidate our hold on the north. They have no allies and our army is much larger, General Lykov expecting a quick war. This will further our control of fur trade increasing our prestige, trade power, and income.

General Lykov appears to have been correct. Our army defeats theirs in a glorious battle and runs down the disorganized survivors.

The Permians surrender after we take their capital, leaving a few straggling armies resisting in the north to be crushed. The Posadnik is reelected during the war since the consolidation of the fur trade is seen as good by all Novgorodians.

Having only conquered Perm 3 years prior the the members of the republic were content to consolidate for sometime when an interesting opportunity arose. We could use this as a pretext for taking much of Sweden's Finnish territory which contains a bit of the northern fur trade, a few good ports, and importantly would secure the northwestern flank. The Merchants would prefer to keep the peaceful relations with the Swedes of the past few decades but the Posadnik sides with the nobility swaying the commoners to agree. And so war is declared.

The war goes smoothly at first and we are able to occupy all of Finland before the Swedes attack choosing to march around rather than attempt to cross over from Aland. This is unexpected and they destroy a small detachment of forces out of place, leaving us outnumbered. Luckily the new General Massalski proves to be an even greater general than Lyukov, having fought in our previous two wars, and crushes the Swedes against the odds.

Massalski decides that in order to achieve the full conquest of Finland we'll need to occupy Stockholm and so he marches around north to take it. The Swedes move to retake Finland before they realize why Massalski left but fear our army too much and leave our army to its work. After taking Stockholm Massalski turns around and ravages the Swedes who were assaulting one of our forts in retaliation.

With this battle the Swedes realize they have no hope and give into our full demands.

During all of these wars, the city of Novgorod itself has been flourishing. Merchants, craftsmen, and administrators creating new methods of increasing our wealth through changes in public policies and practices.

The people of the Republic are growing tired of war, but the Posadnik now having ruled for two decades can't pass up the opportunity to attack an isolated Pskov whose ally Lithuania is too busy fighting elsewhere to aid them.

Under the command of General Massalski we make quick work of the Pskovian army and settle in for a long siege of their well fortified capital.

During this long siege the people decide that the old Posadnik has grown too fond of war and that they can no longer support him. A bureaucratic reformist is elected, Semen Spyachy.

His early rule is marked by unrest as the war takes it's time to fully end, but victory is too close not to pursue. The Pskovians are reintegrated into Novgorod and the city swears to support the office of Posadnik and Prince of Novgorod in perpetuity.

Semen holds true to his word and does not declare any further wars, unfortunately for him the Novgorodian citizens decide to exercise their right to elect a leader more freely and four different Posadniks are elected in 16 years, not one holding two terms. In this time our city sees a fair bit of expansion benefiting from the far sighted acquisition of the northern fur provinces. However, two decades after the war with Pskov we bring our duty to unify and lead the Rus to the forefront of the minds of Novgorodians. A war breaks out between the Catholics and the current Posadnik, Prokopiy Strigin, decides the Republic should save our people living under their yoke!

With Lithuanian troops busy losing battles in the west to the Teutonic order, We were able to occupy much of eastern Lithuania unopposed taking much of their land and ending their lordship over Polotsk.

44 years later, Novgorod controls the most territory in Europe matched only by the Mongol tribes to the south. Victories in Finland, the easternmost reaches of Europe, minor principalities on her borders, and against the Catholics. In addition it is the only major power in Europe to have a largely republican form of government. The people of Novgorod have importantly stopped Lithuanian expansion into land of the Russian people and now look to finally end Muscovite superiority in the south and crush the Mongols.